Public Lands Are Not for Sale: Celebrate Cautiously
In June 2025, a wave of unease swept through the conservation world. Senator Mike Lee of Utah, known for favoring limited federal oversight, revived an old idea wrapped in fresh urgency: the large-scale sale of public lands. Hidden in a sprawling budget reconciliation bill, his proposal targeted millions of acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. For generations, these lands have served as a shared resource for hunters, anglers, hikers, ranchers, and wildlife alike.
The proposal focused on parcels located within five miles of population centers across 11 Western states. Framed as a solution to housing shortages and infrastructure needs, the plan claimed to repurpose “excess” federal land. But for those of us who work in wild spaces, the pitch felt more like a land grab than a fix. It threatened to erode the very landscapes that define the character and ecology of the American West.
At MB Wildlife Control, we don’t see public land as disposable. These are not scraps of desert or overgrown backlots. They’re vital habitats. They serve as migration corridors, breeding grounds, and cover for countless species. We’ve called turkeys across dry creek beds on these parcels. We’ve pulled beavers from aging levees near forgotten access roads marked only on dusty BLM maps. These lands matter. They matter not just to wildlife, but to every American who values space to roam and wildness left intact.
Thankfully, this attempt didn’t go unchallenged. From sportsmen and ranchers to conservation groups and tribal leaders, voices from across the country rose in protest. Critics made it clear that selling off public land for short-term revenue was unacceptable. The pressure worked. On June 28th, Senator Lee withdrew the provision from the bill.
That was a win, but not the end. Lee has already signaled he may bring the idea back in another form. Next time, it might be smaller in scale or dressed in new language. That’s how these things tend to resurface: quietly, and often when folks aren’t looking.
Let us be clear: MB Wildlife Control stands firmly against any plan to sell off public land. While we operate in the State of Texas, which has a shamefully low amount of public land (less than 5%), we understand how important public lands are to the wildlife, conservation model, and lifestyle we cherish. Our love of wild spaces, owned by all, extend beyond our own self-serving motivations. Instead we aspire to educate anyone who will listen that, as treatment of public land goes in the American West, so goes the destiny of outdoorsmen of the world. We do not support the idea that wild country should be carved up for development or reduced to a dollar figure. Our work relies on healthy, accessible, functioning ecosystems. So does the survival of the wildlife we’re called to manage, protect, and remove responsibly.
True habitat isn’t always a pristine nature preserve. Sometimes, it’s a half-forgotten patch of mesquite just outside town. The kind of place where a coyote den stays undisturbed for years, or a whitetail beds down in the evening light. Those places deserve respect. And they deserve protection.
Public land is a shared inheritance. Not a commodity. Not a surplus. It belongs to all of us. Let’s make sure it stays that way.
